He enjoys creating disruption, but in a controlled, precise way. Self-described “artist and destroyer” Graziano Locatelli has created an inventive take on bas-relief modern sculpture by building subway tile walls that shatter to reveal human forms.

From an early age, the contemporary artistexplored imperfection by staying amidst ruins and in deserted towns. “During my chaotic childhood, I developed an intense and uncanny fascination towards broken objects”, states the artist.

The process of breakage has since become Locatelli’s primary artistic vision, realized through working methods that give rise to a sense of tension. Some of his modern art objects are self-explanatory, while others are more subtle.

The artist plays with things or figures breaking through tiled walls into the room, which bring to mind a birth scene at the interface between reality and unreality. In other words, the viewer only sees hairline cracks which form the abstract shape of a human face. Locatelli transfers the frailty of objects to the delicacy of the human body.

Some contemporary artworks contain subtle shifts and cracks that reveal their portraits, while other art sculptures expose more fully-formed figures pushing through the tiles. In his pieces with distinct three-dimensional figures, the bodies are cloaked in an anonymizing layer of white “fabric” that erases their faces and blends in with the white tiles.